Eggless/ Vegetarian Strawberry Cheesecake With Chocolate Ganache

 We celebrated D's birthday on 10th December with friends. For his special day I decided to make Strawberry Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache, and this rich festive cake was my way of showing him that he is very special . Thank you for making my every passing day a memorable yesterday !

I had set my eyes on a cheesecake long time back, but all the recipes called for using either eggs or gelatin .
[ Cheesecakes that require baking use eggs, whereas the " no bake " cheesecakes use gelatin to firm them up ]. Us being staunch vegetarians, I decided that I would figure out a way to make my cake egg/gelatin less. Then I stumbled upon Rosemarie Emro's cheesecake recipe called  "I cannot believe it has no eggs cheesecake " [ where she replaces the eggs with condensed milk]. I followed her recipe for a basic cheesecake and then made my own minor changes to it. The resulting cake was super creamy, dense and undoubtedly rich with a slight tart of strawberries and a must try at home.

Since I was new to making cheesecakes I did some research and would like to share my notes on the same, they are as follows :

1. Springform Pan - Cheesecakes are very soft and somewhat fragile and not the type of cake you can turn out of a pan. This calls for using a springform pan, where you can lift away the sides and leave the cake on pan's base for serving!

2.Avoid overbeating the cream cheese batter as it tends to incorporate air which in turn could cause the cheesecake to crack.

3.For best results pre bake the crumb crust for 10 mins before baking the crust along with the cake.

4.Unmolding the cake - The best way for removing the cake from the springform pan , is by running a blunt knife ( dipped in hot water and wiped before use ) around the cake in an up down motion.

5. Just like baking, cooling ( at room temperature) and the chilling in a refrigerator are important steps in making a cheesecake.

6. The cheesecakes have a tendency to crack, baking the cheesecakes in double boiling method prevents it from cracking and  I followed this method. But since the recipe uses corn starch ( corn starch prevents coagulation , which in turn prevents the cake from cracking ) double boiling is not required.

I hereby present the full recipe

Prep Time : 30 mins
Baking time : 1 hr 30 mins
Inactive setting time : 12 - 18 hrs

Ingredients :

For the Crust :

Chocolate graham crackers - 20 - 25 pieces ( should yield 1.5 cups when crushed into crumbs )
Melted unsalted butter - 1/2 cup
Fine sugar - 2 tbsp

For the Cheesecake Filling :

Regular cream cheese - one 8 ounce package (226 gms)
Low fat cream cheese - two 8 ounce package (= 16 ounces )
Pureed fresh strawberries - 1 cup
Sweetened condensed milk - 1/2 cup
Fine sugar - 1/2 cup
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Cornstarch - 1/4 cups
Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Grated lemon rind - 1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tbsp
Light sour cream - 16 ounces

For the Chocolate Ganache :

Heavy whipping cream - 186 ml
Semi- sweetened chocolate - 8 ounces [ I used Baker's brand ]
Butter - 2 tbsp

One hour prior to preparing : Bring the cream cheese at room temperature by taking it out from refrigerator.

Procedure :

Grease the springform pan with butter. Choose a pan that has sides atleast 3 inches high.

Crust :

In a medium sized bowl break the graham crackers into small pieces using your fingers.  Powder the pieces in a blender. Mix the cracker crumbs with melted butter and sugar until all of the crumbs are uniformly moist. ( I did this with my fingers )  Turn the ingredients into the springform pan.

Use a flat surfaced bowl to pat an even layer of crumbs over the bottom of pan and halfway up the sides.
Its okay if the sides are not perfectly even.

Place the wire rack in the centre slot in the oven and preheat the oven at 350 F. Put the springform pan with the crumb layer in the freezer while you preheat the oven. After 10 mins place the springform pan in the oven and bake for 10 mins. Remove from the oven and set it aside.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325 F. Put a kettle of water on boil. Wrap the bottom and sides of the the springform pan with double layers of aluminum foil.

Cheesecake filling :


In a large bowl , with a handheld electric mixer on low speed, beat all the cream cheese and condensed milk together. Slowly add in sugar, baking soda, baking powder, corn starch , lemon juice, lemon rind and vanilla essence. Mix till you get a homogeneous mixture. Pour in the pureed strawberries and beat until you get a smooth mix.  Mixing of all the ingredients mentioned above should take approx 3 minutes. Do not over beat the mixture. At this stage add sour cream and blend at the lowest speed till you get a smooth mixture. Pour this mixture into the prepared pan. The batter will reach just below the top rim of the pan.

Baking: 

Now place the foil wrapped springform pan on a baking sheet that is large enough to hold the pan with some space around it. Pour enough boiling water around the pan.

Place this whole set up in the centre rack of the preheated oven. Bake for 1 hr and 30 mins .

Its difficult to gauge when a cheesecake is done as it will never appear like its done. Switch off the oven when your cheesecake appears set and the centre is wobbly.

[ The cake would first rise above the rim, then go down and the top layer would appear brown. As soon as you see the above changes in your cheesecake be alert and hit the rim of the springform pan with a big spoon, if the whole cake looks wobbly heat for some more time. Whereas if the sides look set and the centre still looks wobbly ( when you hit the rim slowly with a big spoon ) switch off the oven ]

The whole process took me about 1 hr and 30 mins. This time would vary depending upon the oven capacity.

Let the springform pan sit inside the oven for one more hout after it is switched off. After 1 hour , carefully pull out the set up from the oven. Remove the foil from the sides of springform pan and let the cheesecake come to room temperature.

Once when the cake reaches room temperature, cover it with a saran wrap ( or any plastic wrap ) and refrigerate overnight ( or 6-7 hrs minimum ).

After the cake has been chilled overnight, remove the sides of springform pan by running a blunt knife ( dipped in hot water and wiped) to separate the cake from the side walls of the pan and unlocking it.

Chill it again while you prepare chocolate ganache.

Chocolate Ganache :

 Chop the chocolates as finely possible and place them in a stainless steel bowl.

In a strong bottomed pan, heat butter and whipping cream on medium heat till they start to boil. Switch of the heat and pour the boiling whipped cream - butter mix over the chopped chocolate. Let it rest for 2 mins. Using a whisk mix the chocolate and whipped cream mix till you get a smooth shiny mixture.

Take out your cake from the refrigerator and place it over a butter paper (the ganache might drip). The top layer of the cheesecake might not be even, so to make the top layer smooth spread 2 tbsp of the ganache on the crumbly spots with a rubber spatula. Refrigerate the cake with the crumb coat for 5 mins.
After 5 mins when you take it out , you would have a smooth surface to work on.Now pour the  remaining ganache in the centre and spread quickly with a rubber spatula over the sides of the cake evenly.

Refrigerate the cheesecake with chocolate ganache for 2-3 hrs.[ Refrigerating the cake with the ganache for more than 2-3 hrs might make it dull without glaze, so prepare it just before 2-3 hrs of serving your cake! ]

Happy Birthday again D!